According to a survey by Brazil’s National Confederation of Industries, Brazil saw a 3.3% growth YTD through July as compared to the same period last year. The strongest sectors were Autos, Metallurgy, and Food. The survey is conducted among small and medium size businesses in 12 Brazilian states. For the full story, click here.

Industrial capacity is at 82.6%, and the employment sector is seeing continued growth as well. The study points out that employment growth has continued for 20 months now, and wages have risen 5.9% for the year.

The manufacturing output has risen 25 percent in July based on the strength of the biomedical output in Singapore. This is the sharpest rise in three years. The biomedical manufacturing sector grew by an outstanding 78 percent from a year ago.

Economists warn that this is an exception and not the rule. They also point out that the biomedical field is volatile and this growth should not be expected. Singapore is an excellent spot for the biomedical industry due to its orderly and hard-working society.

Companies are being advised to learn the risks and opportunities associated with marketing pharmaceuticals in Asia.  See the complete story here.   According to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the pharmaceutical companies need to get established in Asia to really understand the market and its dynamics.

In addition to this call to have an on-the-ground presence, protecting intellectual property is still a valid concern as more government regulation and protection is needed.   Governments are issuing various incentives to promote regional investment by pharmaceutical companies.

With an opportunity this great, how can a publicly-held pharmaceutical company not try to navigate the risk for its shareholders?

Under a NSW Government plan in Australia, public servants have to call a private nurse when calling in sick.  The first group of workers affected by this are bus drivers.  This is a negotiated point in recent discussions to deliver a 4 percent wage increase to public workers.  Read the entire article here.

The issue is that public servants historically take more sick days than private workers.  In a 2 week period measured in 2003, 9.5 percent of public workers took a sick day while only 6.1 percent of private workers did.  The NSW believes that reducing the sick leave public workers take by 1 day would save taxpayers $45 million.

Along with the alert to the employer that the employee is ill, the nurse gives out health advice to the employee.  It is believed that the same people are consistently taking the time off.

Is this something for all future organizations private and public?

Vermont is probably one of the greenest states in the United States. Its emerald landscape you see in the warm months reflects the caring of the inhabits toward the environment. Yet, according to a recent study by the Vermont Clean Cities Coalition, only 6.6 percent of all new cars are from the list of the most fuel efficient. You can see the list and report by clicking here.

Some questions come up very quickly; a) what is the rest of the country doing if one of our most environmental states is choosing from this list only 6.6% of the time?  b) what is our government doing to help buyers make more fuel efficient choices? Where are the well-known financial incentives to choose from this list or any list that has a car that gets over 30 miles to the gallon the highway? Or do those even work?

Spurred by a strong growth in overall retail revenue a need to modernize, Chinese retailers represent a strong growth market for IT service providers according to IDC.

In 2006, Chinese retailers spent US $551 million for IT services, while in 2011, they are projected to spend over US $1 billion. It seems China is on a high growth curve about how IT can improve their business operations. According to the study, the biggest drivers for growth are in Business Intelligence, CRM and SCM. To read more click here.

Retailers in China are obviously gearing up for more growth in the retail sector and see the opportunities associated with better operational management through IT. It seems they come out positive on the immediate return on their IT investment vs. what they have and the probable lessons learned coming out of the U.S. It would seem to make sense that if they were to engage a systems integrator, they would do it with a U.S. or European based provider where they could benefit from the collective experience. Large scale IT projects can change careers in a good and bad way.